A guru’s guide to Shangri-La

With a monk as his leader and a communist as his barman, Chris Haslam pushes the borders of Nepal

In the Nepalese village of Bridim, 7 miles south of the Tibetan border, the dogs work a night shift. Big, gormless mutts with dark fur as thick as their heads, they bark from dusk to dawn, scaring wild boar from the fields and warning the Himalayan black bear to keep his nose out of the beehives. In Bridim, 6,900ft above sea level, a day’s drive north of Kathmandu and 3½ hours’ walk from the nearest road, the people no longer notice the canine chorus of this nocturnal opera, but as day breaks, I find it hard to let the now sleeping dogs lie.

This morning, the air is clear and cool, and the snowcapped peak of Ganesh Himal reflects the rising sun like an adman’s definition of brilliant white. Way below, a finger of cloud probes the valley of the swollen Bhota Koshi River, searching for handholds with which to